


Unexpected Forms

by BlackEyedGirl



Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Character Study, Community: comment_fic, Daemons, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-13
Updated: 2010-04-13
Packaged: 2017-10-08 22:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/79981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackEyedGirl/pseuds/BlackEyedGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Back when all he had was their names and a list of suspected crimes a mile long, Nate had played a guessing game with himself. Knowing those forms would tell him a lot. For a comment_fic prompt for a Dark Materials AU - they all have daemons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected Forms

Nate had played a game with himself, back when the others were just names at the top of a file. Suspected crimes and probable habits underneath Sophie Devereaux/Eliot Spencer/Alec Hardison/Parker. When all he had were names that may or may not be what was written on their birth certificates, he had played a little game with himself. Nate had tried to guess the form of their daemons from what little he knew about them. Normally, he's good at that sort of thing.

He saw Sophie first. He was expecting something colourful – something that could help her with the act. Sophie is beautiful in a red dress but he does not see her daemon. Nate takes a step towards her and she turns, sliding the diamonds behind her back. Nate catches the glimpse of a streak of dark shadow disappearing towards the open door. She stops him. "Devin, no."

A sleek black mink creeps back across the floor. "Sophie?"

Sophie laughs. "I believe this is Nathan Ford."

Devin drops the jewellery and climbs up to settle around Sophie's neck and shoulders. Sophie smiles and runs her hands over smooth black fur. She looks like pictures he's seen of royalty, who didn't need their daemons to be showy. Everyone knew they had they had the world on a string. Nate resigns himself to more bad guesses. It won't be the last time.  
*  
Eliot is the only one who could reasonably have some kind of large daemon. The others sneak – if they were walking around with a lion at their backs, he would have heard about it. If Eliot had a lion, well, people would probably still be talking about the thing in St Petersburg that Eliot did with his bare hands and one dessert fork.

But when he does see Eliot for the first time, it's only because Eliot is looking up and cursing. "Cyrah, will you get the hell back down here?"

There's a fluttering of wings and a bird – a smallish bird, really – spears down to land on Eliot's shoulder. Eliot touches her beak gently and then turns around. "Nate Ford."

"Eliot Spencer," Nate replies easily. "What is she, a hawk?"

Cyrah's feathers ruffle and Eliot glares. "She's a damn kestrel, which anyone with eyes oughta be able to see."

"A falcon, then. That's interesting."

Eliot's eyes narrow some more and the fingers of his free hand curl into a fist. "And why's that?"

"No reason. I suppose if I were to go and get the police records of wounds inflicted on the daemons of some men in the local hospital, they wouldn't be a match to her beak? That's one rattlesnake, one rottweiler, one hyena."

"Couldn't say."

"They'd all be daemons a lot bigger than she is, of course. Better armed, you might think."

Eliot smiles, slow and deep. "Couldn't say," he repeats. "But better armed's not all there is to it."  
*  
There's not enough information on Parker to expect anything in particular. But Nate is Nate, and so he's expecting a bird. Parker's a girl who wants to fly out of windows.

She's caught on tape – nothing distinguishing, with the hat and the rest of the ensemble, but he knows that it's her. There is no bird. He watches the tape five times before he catches it – the suggestion of a tail on something climbing straight up the wall.

When he meets her in person, finally, she holds out one closed first. Her fingers uncurl very slowly. "This is Ladon."

Nate looks at the bright green lizard. "All right."

Parker is looking at Nate. "He climbs," she says. "Like me."

It clicks later. Parker wouldn't have coped with a daemon who could fly – who could do something she wanted to do and wasn't able. Ladon climbs under and around surveillance equipment and sensors and when they are done the two of them disappear into the air vent. The next time anyone sees them they will be going straight down the side of the building.  
*  
There's not much research on computer hackers yet. Law enforcement has had centuries to work out what the typical daemons of thieves and grifters are likely to be. Computer crimes are still new enough – relatively speaking – that they have yet to establish real patterns.

It's an important piece of information but they've been working together for two days before Nate catches a glimpse of Hardison's daemon. Hardison is sitting in front of the computer and all Nate sees is the tiny head poking out of a jacket pocket.

Hardison looks at him. "So help me, I hear one mouse-_mouse_ joke I'll… I'll get you on so many cold calling lists the heavenly choirs are going to be singing to you about how to get a better deal on your long distance."

Nate shakes his head. "I wasn't going to say a word."

"Mm-hm." Hardison sounds unconvinced. But, as with the others, it makes sense eventually.

Hardison is in the van, monitoring Parker and Eliot, and talking about nothing in particular. Galina sits patiently by the side of the keyboard, listening to him talk. Quiet as a mouse is the appropriate phrase, her small brown form curled near to the electronic equivalent. Hardison's fingers stroke her back when he moves the cursor too far; he does that more and more the closer that Parker gets to the safe.

By the time Parker and Eliot are running out – Cyrah diving to grab Ladon and drop him straight into Parker's grip before the dogs get him – Hardison has Galina held to his chest. He's running the cameras and security systems with his other hand, keeping up a commentary. He says, "It'll be okay, they'll be fine, I've got this." Galina creeps up to his shoulder and curls tight against his neck until the others make it back safely.  
*  
They're all back together, the fifth or the sixth time after swearing that this is it, the last time, one more job together and then they go their separate ways.

Cyrah is perched on the back of Eliot's chair, watching Galina, who is pretending not to be unnerved by the attention. Hardison is doing a worse job of not being unnerved by Eliot's attention, but Nate is pretty sure that Eliot is just glaring around because he can. This morning Galina danced in and out under a guard's feet so Eliot would have time to get away, and neither Eliot nor Cyrah has quite worked out what to do with that yet.

Parker is lying on her back on the floor, looking at the ceiling. Ladon is on the ceiling, and Nate makes a mental note to have another discussion with Parker about the reasons it's okay for lizards to do it, but not people.

Sophie and Devin are curled up on the couch. Sophie is practicing a soliloquy, and Devin is critiquing. It never changes anything about her performance, but she doesn't get upset with him, and no one else comments.

Eliot looks at Nate. "Y'know, I never would have picked her out, for you."

Nate looks down at Ryanne, where she sits patiently by the foot of the chair. He laughs. "And why's that?"

"She's not exactly inconspicuous."

Parker curls up into a handstand to look at Eliot instead of the ceiling. "Nate's not a thief."

"So?"

Galina answers with her soft voice, looking at Cyrah. "He doesn't need to be inconspicuous." Birds of prey always look intent, but Cyrah's gaze is especially pointed.

"Or he didn't, anyway," Hardison agrees, ignoring the byplay.

"Okay," Eliot concedes. "So he's practically law enforcement. And what do they have? Dogs and some of the dumber birds."

"I knew an FBI guy with a monkey," Parker offers. "And one with a hawk. We didn't like him." Ladon scrabbles down the wall and back into Parker's hand.

Sophie breaks off from her monologue. "Well I think it makes perfect sense. Ryanne's a lynx."

Ryanne roars small encouragement. It stopped scaring the others about twenty jobs back, when Ladon dropped onto her head unexpectedly and Ryanne didn't eat him. Galina will happily settle down beside Ryanne's paws, and Devin keeps pulling her tail. Cyrah mostly keeps her distance, but the last time Sterling's Rudi went for Ryanne, she nearly had her eyes clawed out.

Sophie continues. "Which is essentially a biggish cat. Independent-minded, territorial and loyal in its own way. Plus Nate has always had issues with authority."

"I was an insurance investigator," Nate points out.

Ryanne hisses a laugh. "And I was always ready for you not to be."

Eliot laughs then, smoothing Cyrah's rust-coloured feathers. "Lucky the rest of us were ready too."

"Speak for yourself," Hardison murmurs, but he's smiling and showing Galina something on his PDA, so Nate's not worried.

Parker drops down onto her back again. "Nate," she says, "Ladon and I think that with the right equipment I could-."

"No walking on the ceiling, Parker."


End file.
